University of Maryland Postdoctoral Network

Career Development and Training

Many of our graduate students and postdoctoral fellows seek positions in academia and aspire to secure faculty appointments when, in reality, there are too few tenure-track academic positions for the pool of available biomedical researchers. Postdoc fellows spend more and more time in postdoc positions with most postdoc appointments, categorized as temporary in nature, lasting only for the duration of the research project, length of the grant, or within the visa approval dates. The NIH is also recommending the limitation of the postdoctoral appointment for a maximum of five years.

UMB takes a tremendous amount of pride in that all of our graduate students and postdoctoral fellows are successfully prepared and aware of the wide range of career opportunities available to them. Those opportunities include: the traditional path of academia, positions in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, scientific writing and editing to mention a few.

Effective Mentoring

While each school might employ a slightly different protocol regarding its mentoring of postdoctoral fellow, the end results are the same; excellence in mentoring.

The Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Maryland Dental School encourages effective mentoring and personal responsibility through an Individual Development Process (IDP)—a two-step process involving the postdoc and mentor. Good communication between postdocs and mentors is critical for establishing successful relationships. The individual development process opens communication, identifies expectations, establishes objective criteria for success, recognizes the importance of training and service, and should be flexible to allow new opportunities to be pursued as they appear.

Postdocs will complete a Postdoc Performance Objective, early on in their appointment and again at the beginning of each academic year, to identify their short and long-term career goals and to look at the steps they have taken to secure their next appointment. These objectives set the stage for mentor discussions and career development plans.
At the end of each academic year or no later than June 1, mentors complete an Evaluation of Performance for each postdoc that they mentor. The evaluation includes accomplishments, general strengths and weaknesses, development needs, and the steps that the postdoc has taken to achieve their goals and/or secure their next appointment.
The Department Chair reviews both the Postdoc Performance Objective and the Evaluation of Performance, and copies are maintained in the administrative office. In addition, the Department of Biomedical Sciences has organized a Postdoc Mentoring Committee that will monitor the postdoc’s career development progress.

The University of Maryland School of Medicine (SOM) has earned a reputation for the high quality of mentorship provided by its 1,401 faculty members. (Check-out their Just the Facts section of their web site) The newly installed Dean of the School of Medicine & Vice President for Medical Affairs, E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA, has made a strong impact since his arrival in September of 2006. One important piece of his overall vision for the SOM is to build upon the quality of our postdoctoral training programs.

Under his direction, all mentors in the SOM will now be formally adhering to the AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges) Compact Between Postdoctoral Appointees and Their Mentors .

e-Learning@UMB

The goal of e-Learning is to support educational development through innovative online software. With e-Learning@UMB, access is available to a variety of online programs that focus on enhancing your capabilities and organizational skills. These online courses can be used as reference tools to help answer day-to-day questions, or for training development. Courses are 2-4 hours in length and do not have to be completed in one sitting. www.hr.umaryland.edu/e-Learning/

Environmental Health and Safety Training

The Office of Environmental Health and Safety provides Laboratory Safety Training, Bloodborne Pathogens Training, and Environmental Management Training and required annual re-certification of training. Registration is available online.

Ethics Training

Ethics training is required for all postdocs sponsored by the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA). Ethics training is also recommended for mentor-supported postdocs. Participating in one of the following courses available at UMB fulfills the ethics training requirement.

DBMS 605: Scientific Methods, Writing and Ethics, Course Director Leslie Costello
CIPP 906: Research Ethics, Course Director David Burt
CIPP 909: Responsible conduct of Research, Course Director Adil Shamoo

Job Opportunities

The following web sites may also be helpful in gaining information about careers in academia, the biotechnology industry, and government.

Academia – This web site lists colleges and universities, organized by state, with a separate listing for career schools and community colleges, again by state. From there, you can navigate through the various schools, searching for either the human resources page or the job opportunity page for positions that are available. http://www.university-directory.org, http://chronicle.com/jobs/, http://www.higheredjobs.com/, http://www.academic360.com/ , http://www.AcademicCareersOnline.com, http://www.adjunctopia.com , http://www.ccollegejobs.com/, http://www.aacc.nche.edu

Biotechnology Industry – Connect with any number of business incubator programs at http://www.mdbusinessincubation.org/, http://www.aurp.net/. Baltimore County Public Libraries also have a card-access on line reference for industry, the private sector and corporate employers. Other listings http://mdbio.org/index.php, http://www.asm.org, http://www.newscientistjobs.com, http://www.scijobs.org/, http://www.thelabrat.com

http://www.biospace.com/b2/jobs_category.cfm sorted by category, region, or company

Government (Local, State, Federal) – For Federal jobs visit http://www.federaljobs.net/federal.htm

Nonprofits (Think Tanks, Associations, Research Organizations, Interest Groups)

http://www.idealist.org/career.html
The Scientist magazine released in June 2005, an interesting supplementary issue on careers in big pharmaceutical and biotechnological companies

Postdoc Network Seminar Series

Career development seminars are scheduled monthly through the BMS Postdoc Network. In addition, career development workshops are also available on a campus level through the Office of Research and Development .

Seminars and Journal Clubs

We encourage all postdocs to participate in the diverse seminar series on campus.

The Biomedical Sciences Seminar Series is held once each week during the fall and spring semesters. DBMS 619: Biomedical Sciences Seminar, Course Director Ananda Gupta

The Graduate Program in Life Sciences (GPILS) sponsors many well attended seminars. Those include:

The Alternate Careers in Science series
The GPILS Distinguished Lectureship

Track specific seminars and journal clubs are readily available at UMB. Information about seminars and journal clubs for pain and neuroscience are listed.

Survival Organizations

There are also a number of national postdoctoral organizations that offer career and "survival" advice. They are:

Science NextWave’s Postdoc Network
National Postdoctoral Association
The National Academies
Johns Hopkins University Postdoctoral Fellow Association for extracurricular activities in and around the Baltimore area

Tuition Remission

Most post-docs (not supported by NRSA training grants) are considered staff employees for tuition remission (TR) purposes. Thus, they are eligible for TR for 8 credits per semester at any participating University System of Maryland Campus. Not all courses and/or programs accept TR, as in this campus the MD and DDS degrees are excluded, the post-doc would need to check with the attending school to be assured that the particular program or course they are taking is covered by TR. Please feel free to review the policy on on Tuition Remission at the Human Resources website. You may also review the frequently asked questions section under TR which may assist you as well on the Human Resources website.

However, even though tuition is remitted, fees are a separate category of payment and are not included in tuition or tuition remission. The flat rate fee for part-time students (whether matriculated or "special") is indicated on the UMB website. The flat rate fee for full-time students (whether mtriculated or "special") is indicated on the UMB website. In addition, a $50 application fee will also apply whether taking the course for credit or auditing the course. Audit is a grading status not a registration status--the same fees apply to all.

Writing Center

The Writing Center provides individual instruction to students and postdocs by professional consultants. Topics include: grammar, punctuation, sentence structure and APA, as well as, larger issues, such as critical thinking and writing style, are considered too. The goal is to help each student become a more confident, independent writer. Instruction is also available for postdocs for whom English is a second language.

In addition to the Writing Center at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, Purdue University Online Writing Lab for general writing help has helped some of our international postdocs as well as Dr. Abel Scribe’s Guides to Research Style and Documentation at www.docstyles.com for style, citing, formatting, etc.

For dictionaries, check out Onelook and, of course, Thesaurus.